Noninvasive diagnosis of allograft vascular disease after heart transplantation

Noninvasive diagnosis of allograft vascular disease after heart transplantation.

OBJECTIVE To determine the predictive values of noninvasive tests for the detection of allograft vascular disease. METHODS We studied 39 patients with mean ages of 48+/-13 years and a follow-up period of 86+/-13 months. The diagnosis of allograft vascular disease was made by cine-coronary arteriography, and it was considered as positive if lesions existed that caused > or =50% obstruction of ...

Dobutamine stress echocardiography early after heart transplantation predicts development of allograft coronary artery disease and outcome.

OBJECTIVES This study sought to determine the prognostic significance of serial dobutamine stress echocardiography (DSE) in new heart transplant recipients and to examine the relation between persistent wall motion abnormalities and the eventual development of coronary artery disease (CAD) as assessed by angiography. BACKGROUND Allograft CAD is a major cause of graft failure. However, clinica...

Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging for noninvasive assessment of cardiac allograft during the follow-up of patients after heart transplantation

Background Heart transplantation (HTX) is an established life-saving treatment for patients with end-stage heart failure. However, several injuries can compromise cardiac allograft function over the years after HTX, i.e. organ rejection, transplant vasculopathy or infections which can lead to myocardial fibrosis, cardiac remodeling and ventricular dysfunction. Non-invasive late gadolinium contr...

A novel noninvasive method to detect rejection after heart transplantation

Prompt and accurate detection of rejection prior to pathological changes after organ transplantation is vital for monitoring rejections. Although biopsy remains the current gold standard for rejection diagnosis, it is an invasive method and cannot be repeated daily. Thus, noninvasive monitoring methods are needed. In this study, by introducing an IL-2 neutralizing monoclonal antibody (IL-2 N-mA...

Donor Predictors of Allograft Utilization and Recipient Outcomes after Heart Transplantation Khush et al: Donor Influences in Heart Transplantation